The Shipyard Apprentice/Yonder Banks

Lyrics

[Part I: Yonder Banks] [Verse 1] We lived over yonder banks Where those tall cranes touch the sky Down beside the dockyard wall Where those terraced houses lie And I think we lived at number four Or was it number six? It was such a long, long time ago I can't remember which [Refrain] We lived over yonder banks Over there [Verse 2] We played tag on yonder tip When the watchman was away Up and down we used to run A hundred times a day When the shipyard's sirens blew We'd chase each other home But that was quite some time ago Some thirty years or so [Refrain] We lived over yonder banks Over there [Verse 3] Well I'm at the station now Waiting for the evening train Wondering if by some small chance I might pass this way again Though I left the town where I was born Deep inside I know A little will remain with me No matter where I go [Refrain] For we lived over yonder banks Over there [Part II: The Shipyard Apprentice] And I was born in the shadow of a fair field clean Where the blast of the freighter's horn Was the very first sound that reached my ears On the morning I was born I lay and I listened to the shipyard sounds Coming out of the great unknown And was sung to sleep by the mother toungue That was to be my own But before I grew to one year old I heard the siren's scream As a city watched in the blacked out night A wandering searchlight beam And then at last I woke and rose to my first day of peace When I learned that the battle to stay alive Was never going to cease I sat and listened to me father tell Of the days that he once knew When you either sweated for a measly wage Or you'd join 'The Parish' queue As times grew harder day by day Along the riverside I ofttimes heard my mother say "It was tears that made the Clyde" Now I've sat in the school three nine to four I've dreamed o' the world outside Where the riveter and the plater watch Their ships slip to the Clyde I've served my time behind shipyard gates And I sometimes mourn my lot But if any man tries to mess me about I fight like my father fought We lived over yonder banks Over there